Patricia Howk was 28 and living in Kalamazoo, Michigan, when a March 1972 shopping trip with her 17-month-old son Cory ended in tragedy. When she failed to return home her husband reported them missing; the next day an elderly woman found Cory wandering alone with his clothes stained with blood. Patricia’s body was later recovered behind the Independent Elevator Company building; she had been stabbed to death and her billfold was missing, so robbery was considered a possible motive.

Months later a 15-year-old, Brent Koster, implicated Danny Ranes, saying Ranes had confessed to attacking Patricia as she got into her car, stabbing her as she resisted, placing her body in a van and driving away with the child before abandoning the remains. Ranes was arrested in October 1972, convicted of second-degree murder in Patricia’s death, and sentenced to life in prison on August 9, 1973; he received additional life terms for three other murders. Ranes died in prison in January 2022.